Poetry is the Key to the Hart
by Teddiursa48
Summary: When Farkle is faced with the task of writing a poem about how he wants to be remembered in history, he finds it harder than it seems. But with a little inspiration from Maya, he finds himself writing a masterpiece, which gives him a good grade, and potentially Maya's heart. Faya and Rucas (Farkle's POV).
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I was thinking. Thinking about what I could write. Mr. Matthews had given us an assignment to write a poem about how we wanted to be remembered in history. I didn't know where to start. I knew Riley wouldn't have any trouble with it, considering her continuation of her great grandmother's poem, 'The Girl with the Long Blonde Hair'. I also knew that Maya would probably leave it until the last minute saying that she didn't want to be part of history and end up writing something beautiful. I think Lucas will probably have the same amount of trouble as me. But, I'm pretty sure he'll end up writing something good, too.

I sighed, I had started to write about becoming dictator. Then I realized that a poem shouldn't be a long speech about taking over the world. I didn't really know what to do, so I decided to go over to Maya's. Sometimes, I go over there and just watch her draw for hours. She pleaded me not to tell anyone, not even Riley or Lucas, because people would think we were going out. Which, she has made very clear, we are not.

I left the house, walking to the nearby subway station. I sat down on a nearby bench. Sighing, I picked up the notebook from beside me, still blank, as it had been since I erased what had been my dictator poem two hours ago. Soon enough, the train arrived and so, I stood up from the bench and got on board. I'm pretty sure Maya likes me, almost everything points toward it. She just doesn't want to admit it because having a crush on a nerd would ruin her rebellious, cool reputation. Riley told me once, that when I was hiding because Billy Ross said I was a nothing, Maya had said that she 'wanted her Farkle back'. If that doesn't sound like a crush, I don't know what does, plus, it gave me a tingly feeling in my heart.

A few train stops later, the subway arrived at the station closest to Maya's apartment building. I got off the train and went up the stairs to the busy New York streets above. I inhaled the cool misty air and began to walk toward the building. It was about two blocks down, and I could see it from the entrance to the subway station. There was a slight fog and the sky was overcast. But, even though the weather wasn't the best, I could still see the brick walls of the building. As I walked, I thought about what Maya might be doing. Probably drawing, knowing her. I climbed up the fire escape to her window. I was right, she was sitting on her bed with a sketch pad on her lap. I gently knocked at the window, careful not to startle her. She turned to the window and smiled at me before putting the sketch pad down on the bed and opening the window.

"Hi," she said, backing up, allowing me to crawl inside.

"Hey," I replied, straightening my turtleneck. I watched as Maya went back over to the bed, sat back down and picked up her sketch pad again. She looked up and motioned for me to come over. I went over and sat down beside her, looking at what she had drawn. It looked like it was nearly finished. There was a fairly large, white house with green shutters in the background, with evergreen trees on both sides. There were children playing near the house. Closer to the front of the picture were an older version of Maya, around twenty, and she was hugging an unidentifiable man who was back on, that I assumed was Maya's husband.

"What is this beautiful masterpiece?" I asked, awestruck.

"Mr. Matthews said to write a poem about how we wanted to be remembered in history," she started. "It doesn't matter to me if I'm remembered in history or not. I just want to not be poor and to have a husband that won't leave me. It inspired me to draw this, because, I'm not much of a poet."

"It's beautiful," I said.

"Thank you," she replied. Then, her inspiration inspired me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Picking up my notebook, I retitled the top of the sheet 'My Future'. I could still see the previous titles behind the new text. They read 'Farkle Nation', 'When I Become Dictator' and 'The World is Mine!'. These titles were now jumbled together in faded, erased print behind the fresh new title. I started to think about what I could write. I glanced over to Maya's paper, her drawing now had more colour. The package of coloured pencils Mr. Matthews had given her lay open beside her. Most of the colours were worn down. I turned back to my notebook and started to write.

A few minutes later, Maya shifted her position and for a brief moment, I felt her shoulder brush against mine. We turned to look at each other for a second before looking back down at our work. I was now on the second verse of the poem, still deep in thought about what I wanted my future to be like.

There was another knock at the window. I looked up. Riley. Maya was going to get mad at me. I don't care, though. She's cute when she's mad. I got up and went over to let Riley in.

"Hey, what're you doing here?" she asked.

"Working on homework," I told her, casually, stepping back to let her in. Maya looked up, a blank expression on her face.

"Oh, just the two of you?" Riley asked.

"Yeah," I told her. Riley smirked.

"So, it's just the two of you," she stated, still with the same devilish smirk.

"Riles...?" Maya asked, a little cautious but still cool about it. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that the two of you are secretly dating," Riley said.

"We're not, Riley, Farkle just came over to give me a few notes. He was just about to leave actually," she lied, impling I had to leave. I picked up my notebook from the bed and went over to crawl back out the window. As I closed the window behind me I saw Riley sit down beside Maya who set down her sketchbook so the two of them could talk. With that I headed back down the fire escape on my way back to the subway station. I saw Lucas walking toward the building.

"Don't bother, Riley just went in there for 'girl talk', I was kicked out," I told him.

"Oh," he said. "I was just going to make sure Riley was ready to go out tonight."

"Oh," i replied.

"Well, maybe you and Maya could come along on a double date again like you did that time in grade 7," Lucas suggested.

"I like that idea," I told him. "Let's go suggest it to the girls!" I went back up the fire escape, Lucas following close behind. I peered in the window. Riley looked over.

"He's back," I heard her say, pointing toward me. Lucas came up and looked in the window as well. "Ooohh, Lucas!" Riley came over to the window and opened it, I saw Maya roll her eyes.

"Hi," Lucas said to Riley, flirtatiously.

"Hi," she replied.

"Are you ready to go out?" he asked.

"Sure," she said. Then they just stayed there staring into each other's eyes.

"Maya," I said.

"No," she said.

"Double date?" I offered.

"No," she said again.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Riley said.

"Fine," Maya scowled, and that's how I got my second (not legitimate) date with Maya.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I walked beside Maya, who didn't look as disgusted as I thought she would to be on yet _another_ double date with me. She actually looked quite straight-faced, beside the slight twitch in the corners of her lips that made me debate whether she was trying to hold back a smile or not. That got me back to pondering if she liked me. Dates aren't supposed to required this much thinking, are they? Riley and Lucas kept their hands interlocked the entire time we were walking to the park. It was getting darker now. Lucas and Riley constantly kept exchanging glances. Each with a smile, and sometimes a slight blush. That's the way romance is supposed to be, not thinking and debating whether or not you like someone or if they like you.

"So, where exactly are we going again?" Maya asked.

"We're going for a walk around the park," I told her.

"How is it romantic for _them_ if we're walking next to them?" she asked, but I was pretty sure that she meant for us too.

"We can split up," I told her.

"Oh, _great_ ," she remarked, with a scowl.

We got closer to the park. I could see my breath on the air. The slight fog from earlier on had cleared up, but it was still overcast and no stars were visible. It was silent for New York. But not an eerie kind of silent, more of a romantic type of silent. I took my notebook out of my back pocket and scrawled a few more ideas for my poem on a blank page.

"We're going over to the pond," Riley said, when we reached Central Park.

"Ok, have fun," I told her, and she and Lucas began to walk away.

"No! Take me with you!" Maya called, lunging forward as if she were to start running. That was, before I grabbed her hand to prevent her form chasing Riley and Lucas, who were already more than 50 yards away. She looked at me and shot me a hard look for holding her hand. I let it go immediately. Then she turned away for a second, pretending to examine the scenery, but I know it was really because she wanted to grin about our moment of hand holding without me seeing. Nice try, Maya, I know you like me.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked. Maya snapped her head back toward me, as if she forgot I was there.

"I don't know," she replied.

"How about we just go over on that bench and wait for them to come back," I suggested.

"Yeah, and if you have anything to do with it, there'll be a catch and you'll end up making out with my hand again or, if I don't keep my guard up, maybe you won't miss and actually end up kissing my...mouth," Maya said, shuddering.

"No, I swear, we'll just sit down," I said.

"Okay, fine," she sighed, going over to the bench and sitting down next to me. She didn't looked too pleased. She has a really good pokerface, but I know better, I've heard about things she's said and done to prove it. Like, back at the beginning of seventh grade when Riley wouldn't tell me the truth about my acting, Maya said "You broke our little Farkle,". I like that. Also, there was the time in Ms. Kossal's art class when I posed for the class to draw me and Maya drew me in a bird's nest because she said I needed to be protected. All these little things are pointing towards it, but she won't admit it. I think the overdramatized thing for Riley's uncle Josh might be a cover up because she loves me the same way but she doesn't want proof that she's crushing on a nerd. She goes all out crazy on the hot guy she has a crush on so it's less obvious that she likes me the same way.

We sat there in silence for a while before I took out my notebook and started working some of my new ideas into the verses of the poem. I wrote for a few minutes before looking over at Maya who had taken the sketchbook out of her bag and had placed it on her lap to continue to colour her drawing. Maya's sketch of her older self was completely coloured in now. The grass and other details around her and the mystery man were too, now. Even the man's clothes were in full colour. But there was one detail that wasn't. The man's hair was still white as the paper it was drawn on. It was as if she couldn't decide which colour to colour it. I watched as she continued to colour in details around the image. Trees, fences, the children on the lawn. These were some of the things that were gaining colour with such a delicate precision. Maya noticed that I was looking at and admiring her drawing and looked over at the first few verses of my poem. I wasn't sure how she'd react to what I'd written. A few seconds passed as she read. When she looked up, she looked as if she was ready to punch me. I shielded my face with my arms and braced myself for the worst. But when nothing came, I turned around and saw that she had turned off psycho mode.

"You aren't going to kill me?" I asked. Maya remained silent and answered my question by placing a brief kiss on my lips. I was shocked. The last thing I saw before passing out from surprise was Maya getting up and fleeing from the park.

"Farkle, wake up," I heard Riley say in my unconcious state. I started to wake up. I rubbed my eyes and stretched into a sitting position. Blinking a few times to adjust to the dim light, I saw Riley looking at me. Lucas stood behind her, he looked confused. "Where's Maya?"

"She left," I yawned, stretching again.

"Huh?" she asked.

"She ran off and I fainted," I told her, without giving her details to respect Maya's privacy.

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard," Lucas said. Riley turned around and nodded in agreement. The walk back to the subway station was very silent, because I was embarrassed and didn't want to say anything to tip them off and they were deep in though about what could've happened.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Maya hasn't talked to me in three days. Ever since she kissed me, it's been awkward between us. Riley keeps asking me what happened. She's worried, I can tell. I don't want to tell her anything that might hurt her friendship with Maya. She keeps asking why Maya ran off and why I was unconcious on the bench. I keep changing the subject. That's the thing with Riley. You can change the subject and she won't even notice. I don't know how long I can keep this up. Lucas has kept quiet about the whole thing and, even though Riley's been constantly interrogating, he seems to be trying to think of a theory on his own. Knowing Lucas, he'll probably get it. I know he won't get it by just the basic facts. But, at the rate Riley's asking me questions, he'll probably know in about two days. I knew I could tell Riley these things because she's too oblivious to even link any of the obvious facts together. It's Lucas I'm worried about.

Today's the day we present our poems. I hope Maya likes it. I'm pretty sure she will based on the reaction she had the last time she read part of it. It was magical. Her lips felt so soft against mine.

"Farkle," Riley said, nudging me.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Time for class," Riley said.

"Oh, okay," I replied, and followed her to Mr. Matthews' class. Maya was already seated, looking down at her drawing. I looked like it was almost completely done. That was, except for the man's hair. It still had no colour. I took my seat behind Riley. Mr. Matthews stood up from behind his desk. On the board, he had written; How We Want to be Remembered in History.

"Today we're going to be reading our poems," he began. "We are going to see how everyone would like to be remembered in history." He walked out in front of his desk. "Who wants to go first?" I could tell he was expecting me to jump up and wave my hand in the air. I just sat there. He kept looking at me, waiting. "Nobody? Okay, Mr. Friar." Lucas walked up to the front of the room and began reciting his poem about becoming a world-renowned veterinarian. I think everyone was expecting Maya to say something like ' _Ooh a famous horse doctor, hahurr!'_ or something like that, but she stayed silent, slumped in her chair, twirling a pencil between her fingers. I sat, waiting for my turn. I didn't want to go first and seem...desperate. But after Riley had gone, and Darby and Sarah and Yogi, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Can I go now?" I asked.

"Finally, Farkle!" Mr. Matthews said. "Come up and read us what you got!" I walked up to the front of the room and began.

" _Being a dictator might be fun, but when I think future, there's only one. I don't care if I'm remembered in history, I just want a girl that cares for me. Still being single really tears me apart when my future girl's Maya Penelope Hart."_ I said. Maya smiled, that was all I'd written the day she kissed me. I continued. " _Riley with her cowboy and I with my queen, Riley with Lucas and Maya with me. I always said, loved you both equally, but now I can see there's just one girl for me. If Riley is happy with her current man, then we have a future, I see it, I can. If you think it will work I'll be happy as can be. So, let me know, Maya, will you go out with me?"_ Maya nodded, smiling. I saw her pick up a coloured pencil off the desk and finally colour the anonymous man's hair. It was my hair colour. Maya's future husband was _me_. I smiled back and went over a give Maya a hug.

"Awww," Riley said.

"Shut up, Riles," Maya said. She was blushing. It was cute. It was then, that I realized, Riley doesn't care if she's with me or not. I still love them equally, but in different ways. I care about Riley like a friend and more like a sister. Maya is more than that. A more romantic kind of love. That's when I knew, I cared that Riley was happy and if her and Lucas ever got into a fight, I'd be there for her. But I'd also make sure Maya never got hurt and we'd be together for the rest of our lives.


End file.
